


Where the wild things are

by LynyrdLionheart



Series: I Am Iron Man's Daughter [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 14:22:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3853984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynyrdLionheart/pseuds/LynyrdLionheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caroline and Enzo return to Mystic Falls after their mission in Chicago to face their friends.  But no longer does her world revolve around Elena Gilbert, and sometimes bridges have to be burned before you can move on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the wild things are

**Author's Note:**

> And here we have the fall out from Chicago with the gang. Not particularly Damon or Elena friendly, but no outright bashing either.

They sat in her car outside the Salvatore Boarding House, united in their silence.  This day has been weeks coming, ever since they saved Chicago and got caught on live television doing it, they’ve known this day was coming.

                That doesn’t make facing it any easier.

                “We could just leave again,” she said, her fingers gripping the steering wheel as she watched the house.  It looked quiet, peaceful, but Caroline knew the interrogation that awaited them.

                “Change our phone numbers,” Enzo agreed. His fingers were clasping and unclasping on the door handle, as though any time he almost worked up the nerve to use it, he lost it again.  “Get new identities. Your dad could get us those.”

                “How much do we tell them?” Caroline asked.  “We’ve been putting this off, haven’t made plans.  This is a bad idea.  We’re leaving.  We’ll reconvene at 0800 and actually plan this.  I don’t do well on spur of the moment.”

                Enzo chuckled at that, knowing that truer words had never been spoken.  Their lives at SHIELD were so wild and unpredictable, that when it came to her personal life, Caroline’s control freak propensity had become almost overwhelming.  Enzo often mused that she was lucky he was so laid back, because no one who desired even an iota of control over their own life would be able to tolerate her.  She would scoff and hit him, even though part of her agreed.

                She was lucky to have him.

                “Okay, we’ll go back to your mother’s place and you’ll come up with one of your _very_ detailed plans, after which we’ll roleplay all the scenarios you come up with.  Will you act the part of Elena, or shall I?”

                Caroline rolled her eyes at him and put her car into reverse.  She had just begun to back up  when a dark haired figure flashed behind the car, forcing her to slam on the breaks.  She found herself looking into Damon Salvatore’s unimpressed blue eyes in her rear view mirror.

                “I guess we won’t be retreating after all,” Enzo signed, running a hand over his hair.  Out of all Caroline’s Mystic Falls friends, Damon was the only one whose opinion mattered to Enzo.  Caroline knew he was as nervous about facing his old cell buddy as she was her own friends.

                “Get out of the car, Blondie,” Damon ordered.  “You too, Enzo.  You stopped answering our calls weeks ago.  I think it’s time for some explanations, no running.”

                “We could take him,” Caroline murmured as she put the car back into park and turned off the ignition.  “We have training, and he doesn’t know what we’re capable of anymore.  We could so take him.”

                “Would you do that thing with your thighs?  I get all tingly when you do that thing with your thighs.”

                The words made Caroline laugh as she got out of the car, and suddenly facing her friends didn’t seem quite so frightening, because she had Enzo there with her, and really, what were her friends going to do to her?  Tell her it was friends off?  If that was the case, she still had her Techno Geek.  She had Enzo, and Natasha back at SHIELD, and her dad and Pepper, and the other Avengers, even Barton, who she knew would have her back. 

                “We were unable to answer your calls, Damon,” Caroline replies, and the cadence falls into the even tones that Enzo immediately recognizes as her reporting voice.  Caroline has always been the best at giving reports, keeping things short and sweet and to the point.  Enzo throws in too many personal opinions and anecdotes.  Fine for when he’s having a beer with Barton, who doesn’t extend his dislike of Caroline to her partner, but not so good when giving a report to Fury.

                Or, apparently, Damon.

                “Unable to – _you make time_ , Blondie.  What the hell were you doing that you couldn’t?”

                “We were in Taiwan.  Not a particularly fun job, but it was meant to be part punishment and part getting us far, far away from the public eye.  You weren’t the only ones who saw that news report-”

                “You mean the news report where you revealed to the world that vampires exist?  Without asking us?  Maybe you should give us a call first next time!  Should we be keeping an eye out for vampire hunters.”

                “Please,” Enzo scoffed with rolled eyes.  “As far as the world is concerned, I’m just another science born freak like the Hulk or Captain America.  There are powers you don’t know of who have our back, Damon, and we’re only going to tell this story once.”

                He held his hand out to Caroline, and she grabs it, giving it a strong squeeze before leading the way to the boardinghouse.  Damon makes a strangled noise behind them, and they both glance back.  He’s looking at their entwined hands with a surprised look, before he glances up again, smirking.

                “Accents really are your thing, aren’t they, Blondie?” he asked, and Caroline looks ready to actually use that thigh maneuver on him, but Enzo pulls her back, stepping in front of her to glare at Damon.  The other man might be his friend, but Caroline is his partner, and that counts for far more.

                “You don’t know anything, Damon.  Not about us, not anymore.  I suggest you stop talking.”

                For once, Damon is rendered silent by the deadly calm of Enzo’s threat, and the trio enters the house in silence.

                They are greeted by everyone – Elena, Bonnie, Tyler, Matt, Jeremy, and Stefan are all there, and it’s almost comedic, the way they turn as one toward the duo.  Caroline is taken aback slightly by Tyler.  It’s been months now, almost two years, since she last saw him, when he left her for revenge.  She expects to feel pain or longing, or anything… but looking at him is no different than looking at Matt.  Fond memories, but no hurt.  She doesn’t know when she fell out of love with him, but it happened without her ever noticing.

                “Care,” he said, taking a step toward her, and she gave him a small smile.

                “Hey, Tyler.  It’s been a while, huh?”

                The words are a simple greeting, but she can see that he understands the deeper meaning behind them, and he gives a small, almost sad nod, takes the step back.  She’s no longer scared little Caroline, and the woman she has become doesn’t have time for boys and the drama they bring to her existence.

                “Yeah.  So… saving lives in Chicago, huh?”

                “What’s going on, Care?” Elena asked, interrupting the moment and drawing everyone’s eyes to her.  “What were you two _thinking_ , revealing what you are like that?”

                “You mean the test subject of a scientific serum that seems to be somewhat successful?” Enzo asked with wide, innocent eyes. “Because that’s the story being told about me… and no one who saw Caroline do anything out of the ordinary can remember, or lives… or will be telling anyone.”

                The last is addressed towards Caroline with a critical tone and raised brows, because they’re weeks later and she still hasn’t told Fury about Loki.  She scowled at him, and Enzo just grinned back beatifically.

                “We’re agents with an organization known as SHIELD, Elena,” Caroline said, turning back towards her friends.  “That’s where I went when I left here during freshman year.  I… I was tired of being the eternal victim, and I’m _good_ at what I do.  One of the best, to listen to my instructors tell it.”

                “She really is,” Enzo added.  “She can do this thing with her thighs.  Snap a grown man’s neck right in two.  It’s enough to make you believe in God, really.”

                “Seriously?” Elena demanded, ignoring Enzo’s input to look at Caroline.  “While we were dealing with Traveller’s and almost _dying_ , you were… what, exactly?”

                “I was saving the world, Elena, because it doesn’t begin and end with _you_ , despite what everyone here might have you believe.”

                “Careful, Blondie,” Damon growled as Elena gaped at Caroline.  “You don’t know what we’ve been thr-”

                “Yes, Damon, I do.  Because I have to hear about it every time I come home.  You tell me all about the crappy things that have happened, and how people have died, then been brought back, or whatever!  And I get that it’s been tough, but I have my own things I deal with.  I do know what you’ve been through, but you have no idea what _I’ve_ been through.  Because I don’t feel the need to tell you.  Because it’s on a need-to-know basis, and none of you need to know any more than what I just told you.  _That’s_ how this works now, okay?”

                “So that’s it?” Bonnie asked, taking a seat.  She was calmer than Elena and Damon, her eyes more solemn.  Of everyone in Mystic Falls, she has had it toughest, and more than anyone else she can understand the need to get away from all the drama.  “You tell us you’re a government agent, and we don’t ask any more questions?”

                “Do you remember the attack on New York, Bon?” Caroline asked, taking the seat next to Bonnie and grasping her hand.  “I know you were technically dead and everything, but you still heard about it, right?”

                “Of course I did.  I was a ghost, not deaf.”

                “Loki, the guy behind the whole thing, kidnapped me that summer, Bon.  He planned to use me against my dad, but instead he found out I was a vampire.  He made me a victim, but he made me think, too.  Because he saw the potential in me.  His plan was to keep me, to mould me into what he wanted.  He lost to the Avengers… but that didn’t change what he had done to me.  I was tired of feeling helpless, and he was right.  I had potential” – Caroline squeezed Bonnie’s hand and looked her straight in the eyes, begging her without words to understand, because Caroline could handle losing anyone else, but not Bonnie.  Bonnie was her rock back here in Mystic Falls – Caroline would and had killed for her – and she needed her to understand – “I needed to reach that potential. I wouldn’t do that here.  I would continue to live as I always had, a monster pretending to be human who spent her time protecting Elena.  At SHIELD?  I may be a monster, but I’m a monster who saves the world.”

                “You’ve killed people,” Bonnie said, never looking away from Caroline.  She could always see right to the heart of her, now was no different. 

                “I have.  I’ve drained some dry, but mostly I’ve just shot them.  I’m not lying, Bon, I’m _very_ good at what I do.”

                “And your dad?  Bill is dead, so how could you be used against him?”

                “Bill wasn’t my biological dad,” Caroline closed her eyes, because this was really the hardest part.  This was a secret she’d kept that didn’t _really_ need to be kept from them… yet she had.  “Tony Stark is.”

                “Seriously?” this time it was Jeremy to burst in, as he fell onto the couch next to Bonnie, staring wide eyed at Caroline.  “Tony freaking Stark?  As in the genius head of Stark Industries… _Iron Man_ Tony Stark?”

                “All of the above, mate,” Enzo said, sitting in a char across from them.  “A bloody genius he is.  If I could marry that man’s mind, I would.”

                “You’d have to fight Pepper,” Caroline pointed out, a smile coming to her face at Enzo’s enthusiasm.

                “True,” Enzo replied thoughtfully before giving a tiny shudder.  “Never mind, she can have him.  That woman can be terrifying when she wants.”

                “So… you’ve been lying to us for years, then,” Elena said, crossing her arms in anger, and Caroline can’t help but roll her eyes.  She had been afraid to tell them this, and now she wondered why.  She still cares for these people, always will, but she’s past their drama now.  The world is so much _bigger_ than Mystic Falls, she’s so much bigger than Mystic Falls, and it’s time that they realize that.

                “Until now, you never asked, Elena.  You never asked why I could never stay… you guilt-tripped me because I left, because I wasn’t helping you as you felt I should, but you never asked _why_.  You saw me on tv, and ask me why I lied… but you only ever saw what you wanted to.  Anyone should have been able to see that I’m not the girl you used to know, but you didn’t.” Caroline got to her feet and stared Elena down.  “You were angry once, because everyone was fooled by Katherine pretending to be you… yet you never once saw that I outgrew you.  So I’m sorry I hurt you, but I’m not sorry I left.”

                “Does your mom know?” Stefan broke in before Elena, or Damon, could blow up at Caroline’s words, and Caroline smiles at him, the other friend whose loss would truly cut.  He had seen the changes, had even commented on them, but she had still kept her silence from him.  But there’s no judgement in Stefan, just acceptance, and she loved him for it.

                “Mom has always known, Stef.  She supported me fully, even though the thought of me becoming an agent terrified her.”

                “Good,” Stefan nodded his head.  “That’s good.  Did Loki hurt you?”

                She thought of the taste of Loki’s blood on her tongue – pure, addicting power – and she thought of the feel of him against her, as she held a gun on him, the feel of his lips as he forced a kiss on her.  He had made her feel helpless, made her feel impotent anger…

                But hurt her?  Not in the ways that left scars that the world could see.

                “Not like you mean.  He… he took pieces of me.  Pieces I had built up, that made me feel strong.  He took them and showed me they were fake.  I hate him with every breath in me, Stef, but I owe him a lot as well.  Without him, I would still be relying on those fake little pieces.  Instead I took them and reforged them into something real.”

                “Enough of Blondie’s dramatics,” Damon drawled with a mean little glare at her, because Elena was watching her with hurt eyes, and anything that hurt Elena, Damon would hurt in return.  That meant insulting her, but Caroline couldn’t be touched by Damon’s barbs, not anymore.  Not after Loki and Berlin and all those other missions that had taken her and put her through trial by fire until she came out the other side stronger than before.  “How did _you_ end up with this… _SHIELD_?”

                He looked at Enzo who gave an easy shrug.

                “You lot bored me with your eternal quest to save the lovely Elena.  So when I met Blondie, she interested me… mostly because of how _un_ interested she seemed in what you lot did.  She took me to SHIELD, where we discovered I am terrible at the whole spy thing-”

                “Like, _really_ bad,” Caroline interjected with a laugh, because Enzo could always lighten the world up, and it made her smile.  “I mean, we managed to make him a somewhat decent shot, but at the beginning?  It was bad.  And he still fights like a bulldozer.  It’s almost embarrassing.”

                “Yes, thank-you for that, Angel.  As I said, horrible at being a spy… but technology, as it turns out, comes naturally to me.”

                “And all that other science-y stuff,” Caroline added.  “Get him, my Dad, and Bruce in the same room, and they totally start speaking a different language.  Usually Steve or Nat are around, or even Barton, thank _God_ , because otherwise I don’t know what I’d do.  Die of boredom, maybe.”

                “You weren’t complaining when I was able to shut down Doom’s self-destruct,” Enzo pointed out dryly, and Caroline smirked and shrugged.  “So, since Gorgeous there _is_ good at the whole spy thing, and I’m good at the science and technology thing, we balance each other out quite well.  Perfect partners, really.”

                “It was punishment for bringing him at first,” Caroline said.  “The boss man didn’t like that I brought in an outsider, so he made us partners.  It sort of back fired when we finally started to get along, but in a good way.  Because we’re the best badass partners ever.”

                “It’s meant to be,” Enzo agreed, reaching across the space between them for a high five.  Caroline returned it.

                “So the two of you run around playing James Bond and leave your friends to deal with supernatural apocalypses alone.  Great, how kind of you,” Damon said, obviously irritated by the bond between Caroline and the man who should’ve been _his_ friend.

                “No, we stop alien invasions and put an end to world domination plots before they can really get started,” Caroline replied, irritated once more.  “We deal with the things that you couldn’t possibly understand, and I’m getting really sick of you acting like we owe you something.  People are meant to grow up and move on.  I did, I won’t apologize for that.”

                “And I owe you even less,” Enzo added.  “Seeing as you left me to a fiery death, and I really don’t know any of the rest of you.”

                “Then leave!” Elena burst out, whirling on them.

                “Elena-”  Bonnie began, but Elena shook her head angrily.

                “No, if their new life is so much more important than the old one, then let them go.  Let _her_ go.”

                Caroline stared at Elena’s back, and she felt the stirrings of pity.  Elena had died at eighteen, and she had never really grown past that.  She could look at Bonnie, Jeremy, and Matt and see the beginnings of age in their faces, the baby fat hardening into the planes of adults.  She could look at Tyler who had a pack and a life elsewhere he would return to after this, and she could look at herself and her own life, a life of an adult, despite being eternally cursed to seventeen.

                But Elena?  Elena had died at eighteen, and she had refused to move on from that, even as the world around her did.

                “Good-bye, Elena,” Caroline said, getting to her feet and watching as Elena’s back stiffened.  “I hope you find what you want some day.”

                Then she grabbed Enzo’s hand once more and led him away, everyone else silent spectators to their departure.

SHIELD

                Life moved on, and when they returned back to Liz’s house, it was to pack bags and leave for London and another mission. Caroline couldn’t quite say when it had went from home, to her mother’s house, but at some point home had become the hellicarrier, or even her apartment in New York.  Mystic Falls was merely where she came to visit, but part of her had been holding onto that, holding onto childhood friends.

                “You’re not coming back again, are you?”

                It was Bonnie and Stefan, and Bonnie’s solemn eyes watched her pack.

                “It’s not home anymore, Bon.  Not for me.  I’ve… I’ve outgrown this place.”

                “Outgrown us?” Stefan asked, pain in his eyes.  Caroline shook her head rapidly.

                “No, not that.  I’ve outgrown the drama, and I think I’ve outgrown Elena… but you two?  You’re my friends for always.  I’m a phonecall away and… you’ll both realize that you can’t stay here in stasis.  Just like I did, just like Tyler did.  You’ll realize it, and when you do, come to New York.  Visit me and I’ll show you the world I’ve created there for myself, and then you can both go and find your own.”

                “I don’t know any life but this one,” Bonnie pointed out.  “Leaving it is … frightening.”

                “Of course it is, because the rest of the world is unknown.  But you’re in your twenties and you’re human, Bonnie.  You need to grow up, we all do.  And when you do, you’re going to set the world on fire.”

                Bonnie hugged her tightly, and Caroline revelled in the sensation.  This was good-bye, and it was a sad thought.  She moved onto Stefan next, and he hugged her as well, then gave her a nod, because Stefan had lived longer, he knew that there was more than this out there.  She only hoped he would let himself discover it again, because a love triangle with his brother?  Stefan deserved better.

                “Be safe?” Bonnie asked, and Caroline gave her a smirk.

                “Please, Bon, I’m the Angel of Death.  If anyone needs to be worried about being safe, it’s the other guys.”

                More hugs with her mother followed, and she whispered in Liz’s ear for her to keep an eye out on Bonnie and Stefan, and to help them move on when they were ready.  Liz nodded, because if there had been one thing Caroline’s new path had made her happy about, it was that her daughter got away from Mystic Fallls.

                She got in the car with Enzo, started it up, and then they were gone again. 

                Her life was a series of transitions, Caroline was discovering.  Loki had given her the guts to find her place in SHIELD.  She had seen Klaus once and that encounter had given her the courage to let go of promises of last love and find the world on her own.  Now it was time to let go of her last tie to the Caroline Forbes of old.

                Mystic Falls was her past, a place that held her mother and a hundred memories… but no longer would it be her home.


End file.
